Indu Malhotra takes oath as first women judge in Supreme Court

Senior lawyer Indu Malhotra took oath as the judge of the Supreme Court. With this, She has become the first woman advocate to become a judge directly in the Supreme Court. Chief Justice Dipak Mishra administered her oath of office and secrecy. With Indu’s swearing, the number of judges in the Supreme Court is now 25. In the Supreme Court, there are a total number of 31 Judges, including the Chief Justice and Indu took the oath of office and secrecy at a function held in the Supreme Court’s Court No. 1. Significantly, the Collegium had recommended the appointment of Uttarakhand Chief Justice KM Joseph as the judge of the Supreme Court. Recommendations for the advancement of Justice Joseph and Indu Malhotra were made about three months ago. The file to recommend the Supreme Court Collegium reached the Law Ministry on January 22. Indu Malhotra’s name only progressed in the process of acceptance which began in the first week of February.

Indu Malhotra was practising in the Supreme Court for 30 years. She is the seventh female judge in the history of 68 years of the Supreme Court. Before her, Justice Fatima Biwi, Justice Sujata Manohar, Justice Ruma Pal, Justice Gyan Sudha Mishra, Justice Ranjana Desai and Justice R Bhanumathi were also judges in the top court. Indu Malhotra joined the advocacy as a legal profession in 1983 and was enrolled with the Bar Council of Delhi. She qualified as an Advocate-on-Record in the Supreme Court in 1988 and has been dealing with several matters of constitutional importance. She is one of the prominent senior advocates regularly appearing on educational issues about medical and engineering colleges.

36% posts of judges are vacant due to pending approval from the collegium and the centre. After being filled this, the burden of 7 thousand cases will be reduced by the rest of the judges. 146 are kept for two years. 36 names are still pending with the Supreme Court Collegium while 110 names are awaiting approval from Central Government. There are 395 posts of judges in 24 High Courts, and 6 posts of judges in the Supreme Court are vacant.

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Abhishek Lohia

Abhishek Lohia is a Sports and Political Writer at Newsfolo. He has been working as a Journalist for 2 years and has previously worked at Sportsflu, Sportscafe, and some other Digital Channels. He covers the ruling BJP Government, civic bodies, and Indian politics. He also covers latest Sports News and Live Coverage. He is a graduate in Electrical Engineering from IPEC College, Sahibabad. He can be reached at; [email protected], you can also follow him on twitter @chiraglohia2